Heater!

I'm now officially on a heater. What's a heater? It means whatever move I seem to make, whatever play I decide to do, everything always seems to work out. I played everyday this last week and each day I won over $1500. Hey I need the money to fund my web site as well as pay the bills at home.

This wave of cash got me thinking as I was perusing the New York Times Book Review Section. A couple of books came out about the workplace. Discussing how people feel about their work. How they value all the time they spend on the job. In very few cases did anyone ever say that they love their work so much that they would do it for no pay (lets assume their basic needs were met somehow). That got me thinking about poker. I love the game. I'd play it for pennies if that was the only game in town. But I can make serious money flopping in poker rooms. Each of the last four years I've made over $75,000. One year I made over $190,000. So here I am thinking, if I can make enough money at poker to meet my family's relatively normal financial needs, I can spend the rest of my time really enjoying life's basic and exotic pleasures.

What would you do if you didn't have to worry about where the money was coming from? For me it's all about spending time with my four kids; 19, 17, 3 and 10 months. Like the time I took them ( I only had two at the time) cross country in a 24 foot RV. Now I'm thinking about taking a longer trip in a smaller Type B class RV. We'll go down to Florida in November, spend time with the parental units then continue to Key West. After the holidays, we'd hug the gulf coast and make our way all the way to San Diego as slow as molasses. Be there by February. Then we'll store the RV and take a cruise ship to Baja. Stay down there in a rented villa for say six weeks. Then we cruise back and jump back into the RV and hug the Pacific Coast all the way up to Alaska. We'll get to Fairbanks by mid July. Then we'll whine our way back through the Canadian Rockies and get back home in Connecticut by September. That's my dream. Does that make me irresponsible? Shouldn't I be slaving away at a high pace at some job or activity because thats what we're all suppose to do? Excuse me, but I'm gonna live. If I can swing it (I can't at this point), I'm gonna savor every moment with my three daughters and one son. When I'm ready to die, I want to be able to honestly say to myself that I enjoyed this journey we call life. I didn't just go along with the crowd. I didn't save for "retirement." I lived. I may have risked as well, but I enjoyed it.

For those of you who read Poker Slam, you know all this already. I'll keep you updated on how things turn out.

Zen Poker

I love the concept of Zen. Its everywhere. Its other worldly, but its something we experience and witness all the time.

When a typist zips across the keyboard at 100 words of minute. He's experiencing Zen. When a cabinet maker cuts a plank of maple, she's experiencing Zen. When a major league batter hits the ball, he's in Zen.

The mind becomes blank. The body takes over. A flow comes over you. Things become crystal clear. You can almost see the results before they happen. A peaceful feeling permeates. A focus relaxation is achieved. I love it. I just love it.

And, of course, Zen happens in poker. It just happened to me yesterday as a matter of fact. It was like each of the players had their hole cards pasted on their chest face out. I KNEW what everybody was holding. You know what they are going to do. You know if you have are ahead or behind. I wasn't reading tells. I wasn't thinking about the betting patterns. I just knew. As a result, I had a big winning day.

Its really hard to intellectualize what is happening when Zen is occurring. Practicing an art, game or sport has something to do with it surely. By training the body and mind to react rather than think, Zen is developed. But its more than that. Things come together. You're in a zone. The Zen Zone. Maybe it has something to do with intercepting brain waves. Being at one with all the signals. Being a super receptor. You're apart of the world rather than an observer. An intricate piece of the puzzle. Your letting yourself go. Someone or something else is at the controls.

When it happens, its a great experience. And when it happens at poker you feel like a mind reader - a mind reader with a few more dollars in his pocket.

The Library - Good Bye Old Friend

Before sunrise at most Buddhist Temples an artist will carefully create a work of art out of colored sand. He or she will work for hours creating a composition of exceptional beauty carefully arranging the sand almost grain by grain. Upon completion, the artist places the work in front of the main entrance. Within minutes it is ruined by the in and outgoing traffic.

The purpose of this activity is to embrace temporariness. The only state that truly exists. Everything, even suns and planets, exist for a period of time, then they die. Nothing is permanent.

I love this concept. In today's modern world, we are constantly trying to hold on to things. It causes us stress and anxiety, because you can never really hold on to anything very long. It all goes. One way or another. Rather than fighting the inevitable, we, like the Buddhists, would find life more satisfying if we could learn to accept how things are.

Capitalism is a somewhat Buddhist construct because it allows companies to die and new ones to be born. It constantly revitalizes itself. This cyclicality has come to be known as creative destruction. To me, it is the key aspect to why, economically speaking, Capitalism works best.

Now lets consider libraries. I've always loved libraries. Now that I'm a writer, I love them even more. But, unfortunately, the useful life of libraries is coming to an end. Good bye old friend, I'll miss you.

Why? In the digital age where all the books of the world could fit on a device that fits in a briefcase, the need to house huge piles of bound paper is anachronistic. You want a book. Simply download it wirelessly to your ebook reader and you got a book. Libraries waste all kinds of natural resources - paper, energy etc. It doesn't make sense to have these lovely warehouses all over the place to store copies of tomes that are being stored in hundreds, if not thousands, of other places. Time to move on. Wipe those tears away and get over it.

My hope is that libraries are transformed into something else altogether. Something that we need and is useful - community and study centers. Many libraries are making the transition, but I think they need to step up the pace. The inevitable is the inevitable and getting with the program rather than fighting it is in everyone's best interest.

Here is one approach I like. A small library in Iowa has stopped purchasing books and periodicals. Its purging itself of all the old, unread books from its shelves. A select number of books are kept on around the perimeter as an interior decorating device. Good. Good. Then they are dividing all the space up into individual cavities and group rooms with one large community area. It provides wireless access, printers, ebook readers, helpful tech and content experts and most importantly to me, real comfortable chairs. Writing groups, book clubs and other meetings are set up on a calender that is, of course, accessable on line. One employee is in charge of scheduling lectures and readings and various artful activities. Discussion areas are encouraged in lounge-like areas. Coffee and drinks are available. Snacks and light meals too. Great job Iowa!

By vacating an old institutional concept that has little or no viability, we can solve a major problem that our digital world has spawned - lack of human interaction. I guess, if you want, you can still call it a library, but that would be like calling an eagle a horse. By calling it what it is, people will go there because they'll know what it is. Hey you marketing experts out there - come up with a name. Millions work on their own. If they could have a place to go to do their work and get the resources they need and the human contact they crave, it will be utilized and flourish. Maybe even be profitable.

This is not something anyone will need to go out and push for (though I wish they would). It'll happen on its own, one way or another. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I for one would like another place to go to run my businesses and write my stories. Iowa here I come.

The Great Speech

I've never been one of those zealot pro-Americans. Love it or leave it. America as center of the world. etc. In fact, I've always felt more at one with the European world then with my own country. But now, finally, we have a man who personifies all that this country is, but hasn't been for so many years.

If you haven't watched or listened to President Obama's speech from last Thursday in Cairo, Egypt, I urge you to spend 55 minutes to be truly proud of America and all she stands for. I think it will go down in history as one of the greatest overtures an American president has ever made to a sector of the world, in this case, the Muslim community. He is humble. He is respectful. At the same time, he is hard hitting and to the point. By putting his views out there and making a super salient case that is in everybody's self interest, he invites anyone to make a counter arguement. Beutifully done, Mr. President. Bravo.

What continues to drive me crazy, is the response his speech got in the U.S. mainstream media. All I saw were articles about how he uses the Internet so well to promote himself. Who gives a damn about that, man? Talk about the content!

On the other hand, I continue to applaud my country for having the strength and the fortitude to elect a black man as president of the United States. In some ways, I don't think it has really sunk in. We have an African-American holding the highest office in the land. It almost means that the days of racial discrimination are over. How can anyone now, point at the US and say, "You discriminate against minorities." Fine, if you believe that, go tell it to our black president. The symbolism alone could change the world. But guess what, on top of his physical characteristics, he's the smartest man ever to hold that office in my lifetime. What a combination. The man is taking the high road and remaining open to anyone who has another "way." If you can prove that another "way" is better then his way, I have no doubts, he will change course. No more hyperbole. No more party shanagins. No more power plays. Just a strict meritocracy of ideas.

I've heard fellow citizens say things like, "oh he's just another overly smart Harvard-type, who makes good speeches." So are you saying you don't want to have the smartest possible president you can have who values the rule of law, moral responsibilities and peace? That's like saying, "I don't want that guy to bat clean-up, he's too good a hitter." Clear your head and think anew. We all find it easier to fall back into old ways of thinking. America's self interest. Military might. Political wins. But those days are over (Thank God). Now we must think in terms of empathy, giving before taking and realizing that our own way of life is not the only valid way to live.

I would even go so far as to say that, Barack Obama's understanding of the world was symbolized and manifested in his ability and love for the game of poker. In poker, you absolutely must put yourself into the other person's shoes if you want to win. You must see the world through their eyes. If you don't, in the end, you will lose and in today's tumultuous world there is much more at stake then a few chips.